Your Right to Know

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoEamon Queeney | DISPATCHVolunteers unload boxes of signatures for a referendum on House Bill 7 on Sept. 3. Their shirts tout a poll backing their cause.

A referendum campaign to overturn an Ohio Internet-sweepstakes-cafe law appears to have fizzled,
but backers may not know for sure until today.

The Committee to Protect Ohio Jobs stopped collecting signatures on an updated referendum
petition yesterday and began taking inventory of what already had been gathered, spokesman Mark
Weaver said.

Asked whether the committee will file with Secretary of State Jon Husted’s office by today’s
deadline, Weaver said, “If we have enough (signatures), we’ll file. If we don’t, we won’t.”

He said the forms were being sent to Columbus via overnight delivery for tabulation.

If the group fails to file, the law — which cafe owners say will snuff them out of business —
will take effect immediately. The committee hoped to put the issue to a public vote in the November
2014 general election. That would have at least delayed the ban until after that vote.

The committee, which is bankrolled primarily by cafe owners and software companies, has until
midnight tonight to submit enough names to ensure it has 71,140 new, valid signatures of registered
Ohio voters, to reach a total of 231,148.

Cafe backers had a steep mountain to climb. Only about 37 percent of the 433,834 signatures
originally submitted on Sept. 3 were valid.

At that validation rate, Weaver’s group would need to submit about 200,000 additional signatures
to fill the gap, and it had only the past 10 days to collect them.

Further, the committee fell far short of a second ballot requirement that a minimum number of
signatures be collected in at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties; the committee met that threshold in
just 12 counties initially.

The cafe group has been working feverishly to gather signatures in the week-plus since Husted
announced it had fallen short. Collectors also were hired to assist Professional Petition
Management, a Columbus company that handled signature collection.

The law would eliminate cash payouts at Internet cafes and limit prizes to a value of $10. The
cafes offer slot-machine-style games played on computer terminals.

Operators deny that the games are gambling because customers get something of value in exchange
for their money — long-distance phone cards or Internet time.